Body Ideals and the Average Woman
- Posted on: Jan 30 2017
We all have ideals about certain aspects of life, even about the way we look. Having an ideal body image may not be entirely bad or dangerous, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be mindful about where these ideals are coming from.
For many, many years now, the perception of beauty has changed right along with fashion trends. We can see strong evidence of this if we look back as recently to the beginning of the 20th Century and go decade by decade right up to current day. Clearly, society reached a point where fashion dictated the ideal body type, not the female shape at all. At some points, we see that fashion was made for a certain body type – such as the stick-thin Twiggy of the 1960s. So, with clothing made to look good on that particular body type, women craved to be just that.
This trend dates back far before the 1900s, but we will look at this more modern time. The imagination of Mr. Charles Gibson (a fashion illustrator) led women to want a figure like the completely inauthentic Gibson Girl. To get the highly curvaceous figure, women had to wear corsets that dug into the skin and crunched the ribcage. Does this remind you of a recent trend? Waist-training, anyone?
In the past 100 years, we have gone full swing from the adoration of curves to the worship of the waif and back again. Today, women like Kim K., J.Lo, and Beyonce rule the world – and they do it from behind. Since 2010, the trend in body type has been to get more “bootylicious.”
Trend Watching
Trend watching can be very valuable, especially for a woman considering plastic surgery. The idea behind cosmetic procedures is to bring the body into alignment with the inner feeling, not to morph the body into perceived beauty based on what society says. For instance, a woman whose body changed significantly during pregnancy can regain muscle control and tightness through abdominoplasty, restoring her confidence. A small-breasted woman can benefit from the right amount of enlargement in order to bring her body proportions into balance.
We love watching trends as much as the next person, and we may even follow a few. However, when it comes to enhancing our patients’ bodies, we focus on what is timeless, and that is their own beauty.
Learn more about the cosmetic surgery services at Luxurgery in New York City. Call (212) 508-0000.
Posted in: Body Procedures, Plastic Surgery
